sustaining your student engagement efforts

After introducing programming and establishing relationships with local elections officials (LEOs) and college administrators, there are steps you can take to sustain your efforts for years to come. Institutionalizing the events you organized so future leaders can continue this project is crucial to keeping students civically engaged.

Focus Areas for Long-Term Efforts:

It is important for future student leaders to keep their efforts focused on informing students about the different processes to register and vote, and how to be civically engaged in their community.
Being proactive and creating a network and community is critical to sustaining your work. This can include:

LEOs
College administrators
Faculty members
Partnerships with student organizations

How to Foster Relationships with LEOs, College Administrators, and Student Volunteers:

During the planning stages of your events, make their role as easy as possible! Provide them with all the information, training, and materials they could need.
Thank them after every event for all of their help, and debrief for feedback on how the programming was successful and how it could be improved.
Continue to reach out for future programming and establish a long-term relationship.
Introduce them to students who will take over after you graduate.

Other Ways to Sustain Progress:

Ask school administrators to sign up for:

National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) Reports (idhe.tufts.edu)

NSLVE is an initiative of Tufts University’s Institute for Democracy and Higher Education (IDHE) which offers colleges and universities a free opportunity to learn their student registration and voting rates.
You can share this report with CVP to receive feedback and help modifying your campus plan for next year.
We can also help you find out how to qualify for awards and attend conferences for NSLVE and Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement (CLDE)1 related programming.

Voter Friendly Campus Designation (www.voterfriendlycampus.org).

The VFC designation program was started through a partnership of CVP and NASPA in 2016, and helps institutions develop campus plans to engage student voters and set clear goals for institutionalizing student civic learning and democratic engagement programming.
Campuses are evaluated and granted the designation after they execute their plan to help students register and vote.
This involves administrators and faculty in your efforts and helps you (as a student organizer) develop a lasting plan

Bring a polling place to your campus!

Contact administrators and LEOs to learn how to bring a polling place to your campus, ask:

If your campus is eligible to host a polling location
If bringing an early voting site to campus has different requirements

Before contacting LEOs (www.fvap.gov/search-offices) and administrators, identify possible locations for a voting place—particularly spots that are easily accessible by students, community members, and elderly or disabled persons. Come up with a budget (if necessary) and a plan to present to the Elections office when making your formal request.

Contact CVP with questions or for help with your plan to bring a voting site to campus.

As a student activist, if your state does not already use automatic or online voter registration, write letters, emails, and make phone calls to your state representative to institute these positive changes. This can help eliminate many of the barriers to student voter registration. CVP can also help you analyze and promote other election administration improvements to benefit students and all voters in your state

CLDE- promoting the education of students for engaged citizenship through democratic participation in their
communities, respect and appreciation of diversity, applied learning and social responsibility

If you have questions or are experiencing problems voting, call the Election Protection Hotline and speak with a volunteer to get help.

sustaining your student engagement efforts

Business Communications:

Donations (checks made out to 'Fair Elections Center'):

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